


Need You Now

by lanalucy



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Consensual Infidelity, Drunk Sex, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, First Kiss, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Inspired by Music, Male-Female Friendship, Men Crying, Phone Calls & Telephones, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 14:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4396028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanalucy/pseuds/lanalucy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-mini: Kara calls Lee when Zak's out of town.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by both _Need You Now_ by Lady Antebellum and _Lips of an Angel_ by Hinder.

“H’lo?” Lee’s voice was thick with sleep.

 _Gods. He sounds so frakkable. Lords, please never let Zak find out how much I want his brother._ “Lee?  It’s Kara.”

“Kara? Why are you - what’s wrong? Did something happen to Zak? What’s all that noise?” He already sounded much more awake.

 _Too bad. I could listen to him for hours when he’s sleepy._  “Zak’s fine, as far as I know. He’s out on training maneuvers for the next two days.”

“What’s going on, Kara? Are you _drunk_?”

Kara laughed uproariously. “Maybe. When Zak’s out of town, I visit some of my old favorites, you know?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lee could hear the rumble of a male voice. It sounded entirely too close to the phone to be a respectable distance away. “Kara, do you need a ride home?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” she repeated, her drunken voice suddenly coy. “You wanna rescue me, Lee?”

“Tell me where you are.” Luckily he knew the place.

When he got there, he pushed his way through the crowd toward the phones behind the pool tables. He found her on the back wall, some guy leaning into her, his lips nearly touching her jaw. Lee saw red.  

He stalked up, grabbed her arm and hauled her outside to his car.

“What, Lee? You going to spank me? Call Zak and tattle on me?”

“Spank....” _Gods. A naked Kara over his lap or bent over a desk or...._ He shook the thought out of his mind. “If you’re going to cheat on Zak when he’s out of town...”

“It’s not cheating, Lee. Zak knows. He doesn’t want specifics, but he knows. When he’s out of town, I play. I frak other guys. I frak other girls. Sometimes I do both. As long as I don’t give him the gory details, he’s fine with it.” She smirked at him. “Well, he does sometimes like to hear about the girls. It gets him hot.” She snickered.

“He - you’ve done this before?”  _Kara and another girl? Down, boy_.

“Almost every time he’s out of town. I don’t sit at home waiting like a good little girlfriend. I’ve never been that girl.”

“You’re not doing it anymore. I don’t care if Zak’s okay with it. I’m not.”

“Why do you have a say?”

He looked away for a moment, swallowed down his anxiety. He shoved her up against the car with his body, put his hands on her face, and kissed her. Hard. “If you’re going to do this, I don’t want you frakking anybody but me.”

Kara tried to look away, but he held her firmly. “I - can’t do that, Lee. I can’t frak you.”

“Why not, Kara?  Why?”

“Because if I frakked **you** , that would be cheating.”

Lee shook his head. “I don’t understand. How would frakking me be any different than some random pilot or out-of-towner you pick up in a bar?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“It would be different, Lee, because it wouldn’t be random. I wouldn’t just be scratching an itch. I actually - “ she managed to get free enough to drop her chin so she didn’t have to look at him, “- I can’t do that to Zak. I love him.”  _Please don’t figure this out._

Lee shook his head again. “You are so confusing. You love Zak, but you frak other people, and it’s not cheating, because he’s okay with it. You can’t frak me, because that would be cheating, but you can call me at zero three hundred to come pick your drunk ass up, knowing I’ll do it for the rest of my life if you ask me to.” He stopped abruptly and backed away a little. “Frak,” Lee muttered. "I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

She stared up at him, stunned into silence, then leaned in and laid her cheek on his chest. _We are both so frakked._

“I didn’t ask you to come pick me up, Lee.  I just...” _It should be easier to say this when he’s not looking at me, except I shouldn’t say it at all._

“Just what, Kara?” He rubbed his cheek on her hair.

She pulled her arms in tighter and whispered, “I just wanted to hear your voice. I was missing you. I didn’t...I won’t call you again. I’m sorry.”

He sighed and said quietly, “You will. You’ll call me the next time you pick the wrong guy and can’t seem to get rid of him." He shook his head. "Where did that come from?  But that’s what happened, isn’t it?" He didn't wait for her to answer. "You’ll call me the next time Zak’s out of town and you just want to hear my voice. You’ll call me. And I’ll answer. Always.” He laughed bitterly at himself. “I’ve already said it, I can’t exactly take it back now, can I?”

Kara sniffled. “Lee?  I’m not drunk anymore. I want to go home. Will you please take me home?”


	2. Chapter 2

“Sorry. I said I wouldn’t call again.”

“And I said you would. And I would answer when you did.” 

Silence from both ends. 

“Are you at home, Kara? I don’t hear any crazy background noise.”

“Yeah. I wasn’t up to getting out tonight.”

“Something wrong? You want me to come over? I can talk just as easily there as over the phone.”

“No!" _Frak, no, Lee._ "Just talk to me - tell me about your day.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Hi, Lee!” Kara shouted at him over the phone.

“Gods, Kara, use your inside voice. I think you broke my eardrum.”

Kara giggled. “Sorry. It’s really loud here tonight.”

“Do you need a ride home again?”

“Not tonight, Lee. Alessandra is taking me home.” The slightest emphasis on the word ‘home’ had Lee wondering exactly what Kara meant by it.

“Alessandra, huh? Have you known her long?” _Subtle, Lee. Real subtle._

“Nope.” Kara snickered over the phone. “Ohhhhh. You want to know if she’s one of those girls I told you about?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “How about I call you later and tell you _all_ about it?” Lee heard a feminine voice through the line and Kara ended with, “Gotta go, Lee. Alessandra’s driver’s here.”

_Alessandra. She had a nice laugh. Kara’s going to **frak** Alessandra. Guess it’s time to admit that the idea of Kara in bed with another girl makes you hot, too, Lee. Let’s be sure to laugh about this with Zak next time we have dinner together._

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Mmyeah?”

 _Yes. He needs to sound exactly like that every time I call him._ “Hi, Lee.” she pitched her voice low and it wasn’t much effort to make herself sound frakked-out and satisfied. _Alessandra, well, she might be worth a repeat. Hell, I might ask Zak if I can invite her over when he’s home._ “I promised you a call.”

“Mmm, you did?”

“I did. Alessandra?” She teased the name out and smiled when she heard an _oh, frak_ from the other end of the phone.

“I’ll listen, Kara, but only if I get to tell you about the last girl I went home with.”

“I don’t wanna hear about the last girl you frakked, Lee.”

“Mmmm. Wonder why.”

“That’s easy. ‘Cause she’s not me. Now, Alessandra, Lee. Oh, gods. That girl can do things with her tongue that -”

“Kara!” Lee snapped.

“What, Lee? I’m tryna tell ya about Alessandra.”

“Kara. I don’t want to hear about anyone else you’re frakking. Not even if it’s a girl.”

“Okay.” She sighed heavily and suddenly sounded much less drunk. “Tell me about _your_ last girl then, Lee. What was her name? Did you kiss her? Did you frak her? Did she go down on you?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

A month later, and they were on the phone again.

Lee answered, whispering, “Hello?” and when Kara started chattering as usual, he shushed her. “Not so loud, Kara.”

“What’sa matter, Lee? You got somebody you don’t want to wake up?” When Lee didn’t answer, she hooted. “Oh, my gods, Lee Adama let someone spend the night. Did you wear her out, Lee?”

She could hear him fumbling with the phone, but he still didn’t answer her. She heard a voice in the background, and it suddenly became clearer. “Who are you talking to at this time of night, baby? Is something wrong?”

“Everything’s fine, Gianne. Just go back to sleep.”

 _Gianne? Isn’t that the girl he told me about a month ago? Has he gotten serious about her?_ She heard kissing noises, and the image of Lee kissing someone who was decidedly not her didn’t settle well. “Frak. I was just...I’ll just...bye.” She hung up hastily, and put her phone on silent when Lee kept calling back. Whatever he had to say, she didn’t want to hear it. What she did want was to go back out and find somebody to frak her into oblivion, but since Lee had someone spending the night, she wouldn’t be able to call and either torture him with innuendo or get him to pick her up. _I’m a lot of things, but stupid’s not one of them._

She finally passed out, after thinking much too hard about Lee frakking Gianne instead of her. It was the first thing on her mind the next day, too, and she was so desperate to shut down that train of thought when Zak got home, she frakked him right there on the landing inside the front door, not once, but twice, drowning out the voice in her head by moaning extra loud and making sure she said Zak’s name.

“Gods, Kara. What’s gotten into you?” He grinned at her. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“I just missed you is all. Wanna see if we make it to the bed this time?”

“I’ve got to shower first, Kara. I feel disgusting. Wanna join me? Wash my back for me?” He waggled his eyebrows, letting her know that ‘wash his back’ was code for shower sex. Like she didn’t know that already.

She wasted no time on the niceties, quickly going to her knees to work him up again. Zak pulled her up, going to kiss her, and she shook her head. She turned to face the wall, pulling him with her. “Come on, Zak. Frak me again.” She didn’t know how to tell him she needed it hard and fast, so while Zak slept like the dead, sprawled naked across the bed where he’d fallen, Kara roamed the apartment unsatisfied and restless. She picked up paints and put them down. Turned on the TV and shut it off again. Got down a bottle of ambrosia and just stared at it. _Frak. What is wrong with me?_

She’d never thought to turn off the ringer on the house phone, so when it rang, she had to answer or risk it waking Zak. “Hello?”

“Kara! Thank gods! I’ve been so worried. You hung up and didn’t answer the phone all night.”

She picked up her cell phone and was stunned to see she’d missed over thirty calls. From Lee. “You didn’t need to be on the phone with your brother’s girlfriend when your own girlfriend was right there in the bed with you, Lee.”

“It’s not like that, Kara.”

“Isn’t she the same girl you told me about a month ago? _You_ don’t just let girls spend the night, Lee.”

He repeated, “It’s not like that. She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Who are you trying to convince, Lee? She was at your place, in the middle of the night, asleep in your bed. She called you baby and wanted to know who you were talking to so late. That’s a girlfriend, Lee, not a frakbuddy or a one-night stand.”

“Never mind that, Kara. I didn’t call you to talk about Gianne. I just needed to know that you’re okay.”

“I’m fine, Lee.” _This little game we play isn’t any fun when I have to listen to some other girl’s voice on your end of the phone. Gods, this is frakked up._ “Listen, Lee. Zak’s home. I’ll have to talk to you later.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Now every time Kara was drunk and wanted to call Lee, the memory of that voice _Who are you talking to, baby?_ kept her from dialing his number. The next time Zak was out of town, Kara hit three places in one night, frakking two of the guys in the alley behind a bar, and nearly taking the third one home. She barely stopped herself, but that had been one of the few rules she and Zak had agreed to: she could frak other guys, but never in the place she shared with Zak.

She avoided Lee’s calls for almost a month, barely listening to his voice before deleting his voice mails. In the last one, he’d sounded irritated. Or desperate. _Gods, Kara. Answer your damn phone. I need to talk to you!_ He finally caught her by blocking his number before he called.

“Kara.”

“Lee.” _Shit._

“Gianne says she pregnant.”

Kara fell into the chair in the living room, her breath whooshing out. “Oh?” Her tone was guarded.

“Gods, Kara, she can’t be. I’ve been careful. Really, really careful. I don’t want -”

“I know, Lee. But you’re not your father.” She waited for him to protest, but he didn’t. “Did you buy a pregnancy test? Has she taken one? One you’ve seen with your own eyes?”

“Why do you say it that way?”

“If she were pregnant, Lee, what would you do?”

“I’d take care of her, of course. And the baby.”

“That’s why I said it like that. You’re a stick-in-the-mud, Adama, but it makes you one of the good guys. And as much as you hate your father, The Adama name still carries some cachet. She might be trying to get in on that.” She pinched her nose and continued, “...or she might just genuinely like you. For gods know what reason.” _Because you’re you. Adorably, ridiculously, cluelessly you. Why wouldn’t she love you? Want to have babies with you?_ The idea swelled in Kara’s mind and she squashed it down ruthlessly. _You have Zak, Kara. You don’t get them both. And you can’t have babies with Lee. You don’t want babies, anyway, remember?_ For some reason, that was a harder sell than usual.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lee looked wrecked. She let him in and followed him down the stairs.

“I took your advice.”

“You took _my_ advice? About what? What the frak’s wrong with you, Lee?”

“Gianne. I bought a pregnancy test, and next time she spent the night, I gave it to her first thing.”

“And?”

“She wouldn’t show it to me.” Lee flopped down on the couch next to her and put his face in his hands. “I’m not even sure she actually did it.”

“What’d she say?” She twisted so she was facing him.

“She was pissed. Said if we’re together, I should trust her enough to take her word for it.” Lee gave a heavy sigh. “She didn’t much like it when I told her that a baby was going to change everything, and it wasn’t about trust. It was about learning to make decisions together. Or something. I’m kind of unclear exactly what I said.”

Kara reached out to rub his shoulder, then pulled her hand away without touching him. “How did you leave things, Lee?”

“She yelled a lot and cried a lot and slammed the door as she left. Said I’d have made a lousy father, anyway, and was a shitty boyfriend.” He sniffed. “She’s right, Kara.”

Kara bit her lip and considered what to say. “Lee, you aren’t ready to be a father right now. There’s nothing wrong with knowing that. When you find the right girl at the right time, you’ll be a great father.” She vigorously shoved away the pinch inside at the thought of Lee getting serious about anyone.

“What if the right girl doesn’t want kids?”

“Then she’ll be missing something great, Lee, and that’ll be her loss.”

“You think so?” He looked up at her. 

It was so obvious he’d been crying, and when she reached out this time, she couldn’t stop herself. She pulled him in to her chest and played with his hair while he cried. After a few minutes, he quieted and turned his head to the side. He kept his eyes closed as she carded her fingers through his hair. Lee raised a hand to wipe the moisture from his face and left it lying there. 

The weight of his hand on her breast felt good, and she tried to ignore it, knowing Lee hadn’t done it on purpose, would never do something like that. His hand pressed in, his fingers lifting to wipe his face again. Kara held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t notice her nipples hardening or her erratic breathing.

“You feel good,” he croaked out.

What was she supposed to say to that? Thanks so much for noticing my boobs are cushy? Gods, she was a frakkin’ idiot. She took her hands off him, leaving him room to sit back up. 

Except he didn’t. He slid down so his head was in her lap.

Kara’s hand hovered for a moment, then she set it on his head. Lee made a happy sound and she petted his hair until his sniffles died down into regular breathing. She watched in silence as he slept, wondering how the frak she’d managed to fall in love with two men at the same time.

She was still sitting there with her fingers in Lee’s hair when Zak came home.

She looked up and put a finger over her lips. Zak came down the stairs, dropped his bag at the bottom, and sat down on the coffee table.

“He okay?”

Kara nodded. “Just having a problem with Gianne.”

“That’s the new girlfriend, right?” Zak asked.

She swallowed away her ridiculous irritation at the label. “Yeah. That’s her.”

“What happened?”

She shook her head. “Lee should tell you. Why don’t you get cleaned up, and you two can go have a guys night? I think he’d like the time with you.” And she would like the time alone. She needed to nip this thing in the bud, right frakkin’ now, but she had no idea how.

“You don’t wanna come with us?”

“We’re not attached at the hip, Zak,” she snapped. She knew it had been too much almost before it came out of her mouth. To soften it, she added, “I’ve got laundry to do. You guys go have fun.”

Zak nodded. “Okay then.”

She wriggled her way out from under Lee and headed to the bedroom. She did a quick sweep to be sure she had everything, and was out the door before Zak could wake Lee up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This hasn't been betaread lately, but newnumbertwo and laura_mayfair have both had their eyes on it more than once.
> 
> Thanks and hugs, ladies!
> 
> There's more to this story, but this is all I've got for now. When/if I get more written, I'll post it, but don't hold your breath.

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter also posted in the Playlist collection.


End file.
